


Valley of Fear AU

by K_Ernst



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes - fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Valley of Fear, Western
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 13:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9073078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Ernst/pseuds/K_Ernst
Summary: I couldn’t help but imagine Sherlock Holmes in the role of the under-cover detective in The Valley of Fear, Part 2.  This scene: On the run from the gang, the detective chances upon a certain doctor.





	

Author’s Note: For any who have not read it, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s _The Valley of Fear_ , a secret society’s reign of terror over an American mining valley is brought down from the inside by a young stranger, who rises through their ranks only to betray them, in the end revealing himself to be a Pinkerton detective. 

* * *

The thin shadow slipped silently though the cracked door.  He eased it closed behind him, glided wraith-like across the dark room.  He leaned upon the wall, slid to the floor beneath the view of the thinly curtained window.  He gave up a harsh breath of pain.  Tipped his head back to rest against the wall, staring upward at the shadowed ceiling. 

From the adjoining room, unseen and silent, the house’s resident physician observed him gravely.

Distant shouts in the street turned the intruder’s head sharply to the window.

The doctor flicked a glance toward the window, approached the intruder with the practiced stealth of a soldier. 

A dark slick of blood glistened on the man’s arm, held gingerly close. 

The doctor stopped some two or three paces away.  “It’s you they’re after?” he asked, voice low. 

The intruder spun to face him, good arm bracing on the floor to rise.

“Whatever you’ve done, I expect you’ve a better chance here with me than out on the street,” the doctor observed mildly.

“If they find me here, they’ll kill you too,” the stranger replied, a calculating look in his eye.

“They may try,” the doctor said, and the young man flashed him a sharp smile. 

He gestured to the wounded arm.  “Shall I take a look?”

“Certainly, Doctor,” the young man replied amiably.

The doctor crouched beside his uninvited guest, examining his wound.  “I’ve seen you before with McGinty’s gang.”

“Have you?  Then one must question the advisability of your willingness to aid such a man.”  He watched the doctor’s work with interest.

“What did you do to incur their wrath?” the doctor countered, unaffected.

“I betrayed their brotherhood,” the man answered conversationally.  “To their downfall, if all continues according to plan.”

The doctor glanced up from his wounded arm with a bemused look.  “Going according to plan so far, is it?”

 


End file.
